Millar also achieved the highest finish by a Briton in the Giro d'Italia, finishing second in 1987 and also winning the King of the Mountains classification. As well as the Giro second place finish, he finished second in two other Grand Tours: the 1985 and 1986 Vuelta a España. Millar was the first British rider to achieve three top three finishes in grand tours (an achievement only equalled when Wiggins was promoted to third in the 2009 Tour de France in 2012[1]). He was set to win the 1985 Vuelta before losing the leader's jersey on the penultimate stage due to collusion by the Spanish speaking teams.

Millar was raised in Glasgow, Scotland. At one time destined for a career as a factoryengineer, Millar attended Shawlands Academy in the south of the city.[2] He initially began riding for Glenmarnock Wheelers cycling club and quickly established himself as a leading amateur road racing rider. As a relatively small man meaning he had comparatively less weight to carry uphill, it was as a specialist hill & mountain cyclist that he was to excel. He won the Scottish junior title in 1976 and was Scottish hill-climb champion the following year. In 1978, Millar established himself on the British scene. He was twenty-first in the Milk Race, and won the British amateur road race championship.

Willie Gibb, a Scottish National Road Champion, recalls the introverted Millar growing up, 'Even at school he had a total disregard for what people thought of him and he was very obstinate,' explains Gibb. "I mean, I knew him from when we were at primary school and at fifteen you would say he was a bit odd and that didn't change all the time I knew him. He was a loner and he put off a lot of people in Scotland with his attitude"[3]

He moved to France in 1979 to join the ACBB (Athletic Club Boulogne-Billancourt), one of Europe's top amateur teams. Millar was as ever focused and quickly began winning races such the Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers. This success brought him the admiration of his ACBB manager Claude Escalon. However his single minded persona was also not going unnoticed. Whilst living in his Paris flat a young British rider by the name of Mark Bell arrived, a little lost, finds a bed and tried to find his feet. Lying in his room, staring at the ceiling, he heard a noise in the kitchen and went to investigate. He found Millar, who said next to nothing to him, made his dinner as Bell looked on, took it back to his room and shut the door behind him. Thus it is little wonder Jamie McGahan, a fellow Glaswegian who raced with Millar described him as being a great rider but never a very warm character.[3]

In 1980, after retaining his British road title, taking fourth place in the world amateur road championship, claiming five wins in France and winning the French 'Best Amateur' Trophy, he turned professional for the Peugeot cycling team, and as a climbing specialist focused on single-day road races and stage races in hilly or mountainousterrain.

Millar was happy to travel abroad, and wasn't homesick. He married a French woman, and lived with her in France.

Millar's 1980 debut pro season included second in the Tour du Vaucluse to Steven Rooks and eighth in a race in which he would finish in the top eight overall in his career seven times, the Tour de Romandie. Bernard Hinault was that year's winner. Returning home for the UK National Championship, he finished fifth.

In 1981 he improved one place on the year before with his seventh place in the Tour de Romandie. 1981 was his first prominent finish in another race in which he would again consistently impress, the Dauphiné Libéré. Hinault was winner that year. Millar finished seventh as per the Tour de Romandie and was the first of six occasions in which he would end the Dauphiné in the top nine in the General Classification.

1982 saw Millar again finish seventh in the Tour de Romandie. In the second year of the Tour de l'Avenir being opened to professionals, Millar finished second to Greg LeMond.

In 1983 Millar came second in the Dauphiné with LeMond again finishing a place above him.[4] With his impressive June showing in the Dauphine, Millar was selected for the Tour de France for the first time.

Any hopes of a high placing in the tour General Classification ended on stage three when he crashed losing seventeen minutes. 11 July was that year's tour first mountainous race crossing the Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin, and Peyresourde in the Pyrenees on stage ten. The only Pyrenean stage of that tour, Millar won the day six seconds ahead of Pedro Delgado. Millar finished fourteenth overall, twenty-three minutes behind the winner, Laurent Fignon and sandwiched in between two riders who would figure prominently in his career, Stephen Roche in thirteenth and Delgado in fifteenth. Millar's debut grand tour gave him third in the mountains classification, one place above Delgado like in the General Classification with Lucien van Impe taking the polka dot jersey.

1984 saw continued improvement. In the early season Paris–Nice, he and his team-mates finished second in the stage four team time trial. Two days later Millar finished second on a 64 km (40 mi) stage ending on Mont Ventoux putting him in the overall lead at that point. He ended the race in sixth overall behind winner Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Bernard Hinault, Michel Laurent and Phil Anderson.

In the Tour de Romandie second stage at Crans Montana he beat Pascal Simon into second place with Steven Rooks third. Roche won the race with Millar finishing in fifth in between Simon and Rooks. Millar took the mountains competition. Millar also enjoyed success in the Grand Prix du Midi Libre winning a stage and finishing fourth overall.

Then came Millar's best Tour de France. The stage eleven stage again began at Pau. After crossing the climbs of the Portet d'Aspet, Core and Latrape, Millar won the stage finishing with a climb to Guzet-Neige ski station. He was forty-one seconds ahead of Luis Herrera with Delgado a further twenty seconds behind in third.[5] Millar finished fourth overall (surpassing Tom Simpson's sixth place in the 1960s) with Fignon winning for the second successive year and Hinault and LeMond also ahead of Millar. Kelly was a place behind Millar in fifth. Millar won the "King of the Mountains" polka dot jersey, the first and only time to date a native English speaker has won this jersey.

In 1985, Millar came sixth once more in the early season Paris–Nice with Kelly again winning in his run of seven successive victories in the event.

In 1985 the Vuelta a España was still held in its April — May slot as the first of the three grand tours of the season. Millar took over the race lead on stage ten, a stage won by Kelly. Millar held the lead going into what has become one of the most infamous days' racing in the history of the event. Millar started the day ten seconds ahead of Francisco Rodríguez with Spain's Pello Ruiz Cabestany 65 seconds further behind in third. With the following days last stage of the race little more than ceremonial, Millar said to the press, "I just have to stick to Pacho Rodríguez's wheel and it's done." A mountainous stage with three major climbs, Rodriguez tried but was unable to make any in roads on Millar on the first climb of the day, the Morcuera. At the foot of the second climb, the Cotos, Millar punctured meaning once the puncture had been tackled Millar had to chase to get back to Rodrigues and Cabestany. By the time riders reached the third climb, Los Leones, Millar had not only reached the men he perceived as his main rivals but was also taking their congratulations indicating their submission in their attempts to overhaul Millar and presenting the race over as a contest.[7]

Millar however was unaware that Delgado, in the mountains around his Segovia home town that he knew like the back of his hand, had launched an attack. None of the riders in Millar's group made him aware of the attack by Delgado — an elite specialist climber like Millar and in this case with the knowledge of the roads allowing him to descend aggressively. Delgado had support in his break from a second rider, Jose Recio. Delgado had started the day in sixth place and six minutes behind Millar. Working with Recio, Delgado was now nearly seven minutes ahead of Millar on the road. Millar had none of his team-mates in his group with Rodrigues and Cabestany as his colleagues had been unable to keep up. Recio won the stage and Delgado took overall lead of the race by thirty-six seconds.[8] With the race now referred to as, "The Stolen Vuelta', from the collusion among the Spanish speaking riders, Millar finished second overall.[9] Peugeot directeur sportif, Roland Berland, said, "It's rotten, the whole peloton was against us. It seems a Spaniard had to win at all costs." L'Équipe's Philip Bouvet stated, Millar was "the victim of a formidable Spanish coalition". Millar said afterwards, "I'll never return to Spain".[10] In the television documentary on Millar, "The High Life", Millar criticised Berland for his handling of the situation on the road when Delgado attacked. Berland had been unable to negotiate support from other non Spanish speaking teams during the stage to give Millar the required support to chase down Delgado's lead.

In the Tour de France Millar finished eleventh. In September Millar was overall winner of the Volta a Catalunya taking the leader's jersey on the penultimate stage, a 22 km (14 mi) individual time trial at Tortosa. The stage was won by Jose Recio, an earlier leader of the race. Millar beat the previous overall winner into second place by three seconds, Sean Kelly.[11]

Millar changed teams in 1986 to ride for Panasonic. Despite his previous comment after the '85 race, Millar again rode in the Vuelta a España. Millar won stage six from Santander to Lagos de Covadonga putting him into the leader's jersey. On stage eleven however, a 29 km (18 mi) time trial at Valladolid, Alvaro Pino took over the lead and retained this to the finish with Millar finishing second overall like he had the year before. The winning margin was one minute and six seconds.

In the Tour de France Millar was racing well even before the race reached the mountains with a third in the team time trial and ninth in the individual time trial on stage nine. Millar was placed tenth at this point. This improved further in the Pyrenees on stage thirteen from Pau crossing the Tourmalet, the Aspin, the Peyresourde and finishing at Superbagneres. Millar finished second on the day to eventual winner of the race, Greg Lemond. This placed Millar in fourth overall at this point and in the lead in the mountains competition.[12] He retained this to the end of stage seventeen between Gap and Serre Chevalier. However Millar was battling illness and began to spiral down the placings in a struggle just to stay in the race. In the stage twenty time trial, in contrast to the ninth place in the earlier time trial, Millar placed 112th over ten minutes behind the stage winner (Hinault). Millar started stage twenty-one in fifteenth overall but climbed off his bike to abandon the race on the conical final climb of the day up the Puy de Dôme.

In 1987 Millar rode the Giro d'Italia for the only time in his career. The race provided high drama with Millar figuring in the proceedings for more than his good form. The race is best remembered for the controversy between two riders on the same Carrera team. The defending champion was home favourite, Roberto Visentini. Visentini was leading again in '87 after the stage thirteen individual time trial. Two days later Stephen Roche attacked in the Dolomites on stage fifteen finishing at the top of the Cima Sappada. This was despite Visentini being the race leader and his team-mate. Roche was instructed to abandon his attack, instructions he ignored and surged on to take over the race lead. This ignited the fury of the livid and partizan Italian support with Roche becoming a hate figure to the home fans and needing police protection. Roche went on television to plea for sanity.[13]

Stage sixteen after Sappada has become known as the 'Marmalada Massacre' with the Marmalada (also known as Passo Fedaia) scheduled to be the last of the days five major climbs. Roche had been threatened, spat at and even hit. Roche had support from only one member of the other Carrera riders, Eddy Schepers. Schepers rode at Roche's side to protect him. Millar, in contrast to the cross team support that evaded him in the '85 Vuelta, rode on Roche's other side. Visentini tried to get away from Roche but his moves were covered. Visentini tried to knock Schepers off his bike, later boasting so. However at the end of the stage Roche remained in the lead. Millar was third at this point with his Panasonic team-mate, Erik Breukink in second. Visentini was seventh. Millar was still leading the mountains contest as he had since stage 1b. There was no further change to the top of the leader board until the penultimate stage, stage twenty-one. Millar won the stage in a three man breakaway with Roche and Marino Lejarreta. Millar was now up to second overall. Visentini fell, broke his wrist and lost six more minutes on what was to be his last day in the race. Roche won the time trial final stage to seal his victory with Millar placing second overall three minutes forty seconds behind in the general classification. Breukink finished in third.[13] Millar took the climber's green jersey.

In the Tour de Romandie, Millar finished fourth, a race won by Roche as was the Tour de France. Millar finished nineteenth in the Tour de France although at the end of stage fourteen from Pau to Luz Ardiden, Millar again enjoyed his zenith in the race when he was fifth overall. Like the year before he had been helped by a strong showing in the first individual time trial. However Millar slipped to fifth then six before on stage nineteen he lost over fifteen minutes to slide out of contention.

In the Tour de France, after struggling in the Alps, on stage fourteen he lost the opportunity of a repeat Pyrenees stage win in Guzet-Neige. Millar led over each of the first two climbs from Blagnac. In sprinting uphill to the finish with Phillipe Bouvatier, both riders mistook a gendarme's signals, took a wrong turn and ceded the win to Massimo Ghirotto. Millar finished in second on the day two seconds behind. The next day Millar was again riding at the front when leading over the second climb but cracked and finished twenty-one minutes behind. Stage seventeen was the last he would complete that year.

High placings that year were second in the Bicicleta Vasca included third in each of the Critérium International (behind Breukink and Fignon) and the Route de Sud (Ronan Pensec won). Millar was eighth in Volta a Catalunya behind Miguel Indurain and ninth in Paris — Nice with Kelly winning the race for the last time.

Millar returned to one of his previous teams, Z-Peugeot as it was now known and was second overall behind Mottet after winning stage seven in the Dauphiné Libéré. Millar was a stage winner in the Tour de Romandie finishing third overall behind Anderson. Millar was runner up in the Grand Prix de Wallonie to Thomas Wegmüller.

He rode only one grand tour for the first time since 1984 and he had his best placing in the tour since the 1984 race. He won stage ten of the 1989 Tour de France from Cauterets to Superbagnères. Millar was first to the top of all four of that days climbs scaling the Tourmalet, Aspin, and Peyresourde before the Superbagneres finish. Charly Mottet was dropped from the three man group approaching the finish leaving Millar to out sprint Delgado at the line. Millar was placed eighth at this point and ended that year's tour in tenth.

In the autumn Millar was overall winner in the Tour of Britain with his decisive move coming in a long two man breakaway with Mauro Gianetti into Cardiff. Gianetti took the sprint for the stage but Millar comfortably stayed in yellow for the rest of the race. Other top ten placings included eighth in the Tour de Vaucluse (Rooks won) and ninth in the Grand Prix of the Americas.

Victory in the Dauphiné Libéré arrived in 1990. Millar was in a stage six, two man breakaway with Thierry Claveyrolat. Both riders finished in the top five in the leading group the next day. Stage eight was an individual time trial and despite strong time trialists being in the peloton such as Roche and Toni Rominger, Millar took the overall title with Claveyrolat the runner up.,[14]

Millar was runner up for a second time in the Tour de Suisse with Kelly the victor that year. Millar was a stage winner in the Tour de Romandie (Mottet took overall prize). Millar took fourth place in the Giro di Lombardia behind Gilles Delion. In between, he also took second place in the 1990 Tour of Britain hampered by a crash on the last day.

In the Tour de France Millar rode as part of the team intended to support the previous year's winner and reigning world champion, Greg LeMond. However the race was turned on its head on the first stage. With a team time trial scheduled to follow in the afternoon, the strong contenders in the race allowed a breakaway to finish over ten minutes ahead of the main bunch. This gap at the finish shaped the entire race and Steve Bauer was in yellow at this point. One of the breakaway was Ronan Pensec, sixth in 1986, seventh in 1988 and this year a team-mate of LeMond and Millar. In the stage seven individual time trial LeMond finished in fifth only fifteen seconds ahead of Pensec. Bauer stayed in yellow and commented, “I was surprised how well Pensec did. He did a brilliant ride." Two stages later and the race hit the first serious mountains of the race when reaching the Alps. Pensec on his twenty-seventh birthday took yellow after Bauer was dropped. This divided the focus of the team. Most of the team stayed assigned to LeMond but Millar stayed with Pensec, pacing him up Alpe d'Huez to successfully defend the yellow jersey.[15] Pensec later said, “He worked especially hard for me that day, encouraging me, and I hope he knows how much that means to me.” Pensec though was unable to protect his jersey successfully for a second day when in the individual time trial the jersey passed to another man from the early race four man breakaway, Claudio Chiappucci.[16]

The Z team not only helped deliver the yellow jersey for LeMond but also won the team competition. Millar though was denied the yellow cap award from the competition his team led from stage ten onwards. Stage fourteen was the last he completed on the tour that year. This was Millar's third and last withdrawal from the eleven times he rode the tour. Other placings in the top ten that year included fourth in the Vuelta a Andalucía and ninth in La Flèche Wallonne with Moreno Argentin winning.

Millar won a stage in the 1991 Tour de Suisse and finished fifth overall. That year was his best overall finish in the Tour de Romandie, second, with Rominger the man denying Millar the title. He was second in the debut edition of the Classique des Alpes behind Mottet, fourth in the Dauphine behind Herrera, fourth in the Tour of Britain and fifth in the Grand Prix of the Americas.

He finished the Tour de France in seventy-second place, the only one of his eight finishes in the tour that was outside the top twenty-five.

It was in 1992 when Millar said that his vegetarianism was intended to improve his performance on the bike. "It's not a principle — it's a personal thing. I've read a lot of books about it".[17]

Millar completed the Tour de France in 1992 (18th) and 1993 (24th), and the Vuelta in 1992 (20th) and 1993 (15th). He achieved top ten finishes in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme, Giro del Piemonti and Liege — Bastogne — Liege (all in 1992), and the Classiques des Alpes and the Midi Libre (both in 1993), all as he had done before. He also top tenned in other races for the first time.

Further victories largely eluded him. His final major victory came in June 1995 when he won the National Road Race Championship. However, soon afterwards, his French team Le Groupement went bust and Millar retired from racing.

Millar tested positive for testosterone after a stage of the Vuelta a España, in 1992. He was fined £1,100, lost his third place on the stage, incurred a 10 minute time penalty and was given a three month suspended ban.[18]

Robert Millar — The High Life was rediscovered and screened, simultaneously with the release of the book, at Edinburgh Bike Week Film Festival on 26 June 2007.[19] A DVD version of the documentary was released in 2008.[20] In 2011, Millar authored analytical opinions for Cyclingnews during the Tour de France.[21]

Millar married a French woman, Sylvie Transler, in December 1985. No-one from Millar's family was in attendance, nor were any of his team-mates, who had no idea he even had a girlfriend. Panasonic team-mate, Phil Anderson commented "he didn't seem to have the skills for getting on with men, let alone women".[22]

Millar had a reputation for being taciturn and could be uncooperative with the media. Jeff Connor, author of Wide Eyed & Legless: Inside the Tour de France was told to "fuck off" when requesting an interview during the 1987 Tour de France. After reporting this to the cycling commentator, Phil Liggett, who was then working for Channel 4 Television, Liggett replied "that sounds like Millar, he's been really awkward with us in the past. Personally, I think it's a disgrace. He has a duty to his sponsor to represent the team and you don't do that by telling journalists to 'fuck off'."[23]

During the Channel 4 commentary for Stage 23 of the 1987 Tour de France, Liggett stated "[It has been a] very disappointing Tour for Robert. He has lost a lot of popularity, too, one has to say. He won't speak to journalists and the team itself [Panasonic] is also becoming discontented with Robert this year." Millar subsequently left Panasonic at the end of the 1987 season, to join Fagor.[24]